


Black Feathers

by YourKnightOfRage



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 21:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11090577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourKnightOfRage/pseuds/YourKnightOfRage
Summary: Some people say that you can make deals with the Gentry, yes you have a chance of them being favourable to you, but they are very slim.You can not, however, make a deal with The Crows: if they decide to do something it is only out of love, but only few are ever loved by this court.





	Black Feathers

You guess your University is a bit like every other; they offer a vast choice of majors and have a lot of rules for people attending, like if you see someone cheating don't tell on them, don't step on the grass, try to make sure your friends don't go completely insane during finals week.

Well, maybe they're more like a non written behaviour code between students than a set of rules.

But your university also has some peculiar student traditions:  
Always have something made of iron or salt on you, be extremely polite or better yet adopt some speech patterns which are real fucking weird.

Always use a false name on campus.

Literally nobody on campus goes by their birth name, not even your twin; you go by Knight, she likes Seer.

The first few months both of you would constantly mess up, but you had to force yourselves to never use your real names; you've seen people let them out and never seen them again.  
Being kicked out seems a bit harsh to you, but if that's the way your school does its thing then who are you to disagree?  
By the second year in you've adapted quite well to the rules and traditions, Even if some of them make it hard to bond with the other students.

Seeing as most students run away at any attempt of socialization, you become friends with the crows.

Campus is packed with them, knowing that almost every student feeds them you aren't surprised at them staying.

You too had started feeding them a few months in, your dream of being The Crow Lady sparking back to life, and they'd soon gotten comfortable with you, even letting you get closer than you'd expect.  
Clearly crows were more used to people here than back at home.

One day you found one of your favourite ones on a bench.  
He was standing on the arm of it, the complicated design in metal and the pose of the bird would really make for a good picture so you took out your phone and got closer.  
You cursed under your breath for not having one of your favourite cameras with you.

You put your knee on the bench, the soft creaking of the wood catching the crow's attention and making him turn his head.  
This would be perfect, you thought as you waited for your phone to focus, you just needed to-

"Don't."

The voice took you completely by surprise, you jumped a little, turning towards the source.  
Behind you you heard a fluttering of wings and groaned, sitting down.

"Dude, really?" You weren't mad, just annoyed a little.

He answered with sufficiency.

"Did you even ask her if you could take her picture? If the answer is no, it's better this way, idiot."

"Actually, my name's Knight." You extended your arm, might as well make friends, right? "And you are...?"

The other boy just looked at you, your hand and then put his own in the pocket of his black hoodie. Asshole.

"Cancer." He then turned on his heels and started walking away.   
Yeah defenitely new friend material right there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At some point you'd started talking to the crows, a lot of times you just let your mouth go, talk their ears off, if they got bored they just flew away, but other times they didn't.  
They never fly away when you read them some new story you have in mind for a comic.  
You even fall in the habit of asking them for their opinion.

You fall in the habit of sitting down with two or three feathered bastards and wait for an approving noise as they eat and listen to you.

You hear the sound of dry leafs being crushed next to you, a presence close.  
You turn and he's much closer than you'd expected, his crossed legs almost touching you.

"You really shouldn't show off like this," he says, looking at you rather than the birds.

"Hey, uh." You hesitate, not quite sure what name he'd told you almost two weeks ago. "Cancer, was it? And I'm not showing off."

"Yes you are. You're reading them original stuff rather than the old poetry like all the other reasonable humans!" As he says so he takes the can you left near you, taking some nuts in hand and eating them.

"Haven't they told you not to take food from people you don't know outside of campus?"

"Haven't they told you to not show your abilities in the creative field outside of class? Or is your skull so empty that the information got crushed by the black hole that surely exists in there?"

You snort.  
"I'm not sure that's how black holes work, man" Leaning back you throw a handful of nuts as gently as you can, an apology for the interruption of your reading.

"That's not the point. Why are you doing this?" You kind of want to tell this guy to mind his own damn business, but fuck that, right?

"Dunno, it just hepls me have a clearer vision of what I'm doing. Like the crows are some kind of X Factor style judges and if the majority of them think I'm doing great then I actually am and I'll get a contract by the end of the episode. Or something like that." You shrug. "I've actually never watched X Factor, but I'm sure I've got it. The factor X I mean. What's that even stand for, anyways? Is it like in Maths, just a placeholder for something people need to find out? Because then how would the judges know who has it or not?"

"I'll just ignore the mile long river of bullshit leaving your mouth right now. Maybe we'll get lucky and since we're in an open field it won't drown us. Do you expect them to help you if you're in need?" His eyes are almost closed, he's looking at you under long dark lashes against dark skin, his eyebrows furrowed. "Is that it?"

"Dude, I'm just hanging with the birds, what's your deal?"  
"So you don't expect them to help you come back if you need it? That'd be a first."  
"You're such a cryptid. Come back from where?"  
"Nowhere. Just get back to reading, they liked it."

From then and on you'd often see Cancer when hanging with the crows. With time the mood got calmer, the smal talk became friendlier.

He still didn't quite get to like your reading or making shit up for the crows, he sometimes looked around seeming tense, other times he'd comment on your work.  
He would say that it was quite ridiculous, commented that one would have to be subject to the same stories being told to them again and again and again to find yours entertaining.

In response you'd told John Mulaney's Salt and Pepper diner story.

"Yes! exactly!" he exclaimed when you got to the 'It's Not Unusual' part.  
One minute later he was bent at the waist laughing.

He had an ugly as fuck laugh, packed with snorting and weird faces and wrong notes. It was great.

From then on you'd started putting extra effort both in making shittier stories and actually good ones.

He told you stories too, mainly romance it seemed, but you could never really keep up.  
The ridiculously complicated plots rolled out on his tongue easily but got too mixed up when it reached your brain.

It was like a complicated russian novel where everyone's got nine different names and related to each other on some weird degree.

"Wait, hold on, who's Breena?"  
"Knight, I've told you so many times already! She's Ella's Godmother. Extremely strict yet kind in her heart."  
"Right, and Ella is in love with Andrey."  
"No, Nerida loves Andrey. Honestly how do you not get it? It's so simple and if you need to write this down why the fuck are you not doing it?"  
"Dude, I refuse to sit here and take notes of your weird ass stories. I already spend most of my time studying, I'm not adding you to the schedule."  
"Why the fuck do you ask me to tell you this shit if you're not interested in the events, you delusional asswhipe?"  
"Don't know. I guess I like the sound of your voice?"  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're feeding the crows, it's fresh fruits directly from your lunch today.  
The corvids scream out in joy when you give up some more, one even gets as bold as to fly right down next to you and look at your food intensely.

You're just offering up the rest of your apple to the closest one, when approaching steps take your focus away from them.  
Turning around you can't help the little pause when it's not Cancer.

"Sup, Seer."  
"Hello," She says softly, it doesn't matter how careful and slow she is, the crows soon move further from her, without quite going away until she sits down next to you.

"I'm sure some students are getting jealous of how comfortable they are with you. I don't think they let anyone as close."  
"Nah, I've told you about this one guy, they don't even look at him for more than one second, it's pretty damn amazing if I say so."  
"That Cancer boy again? Why you seem quite fond of him, my dearest."  
"Seer, I've talked about him like twice. Get off my ass."  
"Getting defensive already?"  
You really fucking hated her when she was like this.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
As time went by you started learning the reasons behind the previously absurd rules.

It's incredible how much of the shit that goes down in this school you don't notice until you know is there.

All it took was a trip to the library, the first time visiting that one building since when you'd gotten admitted and suddently all the small things of the school were revealed to you.  
No, not because of it being weird or unusual, even if the shadows stretch wrong, no.

What made you understand was the fact that when you stepped in there you noticed that time just, didn't.  
It all felt wrong and you could feel the sensation trying to settle within you, to behave as if it weren't there.  
In its attempt it rubbed off on your core making you so aware of it you couldn't focus on studying. Nobody else seemed to face this problem.

Then you noticed that some teachers always had two cups of coffe but only ever drank from one.  
And then you never see the guy that went at that one party ever again. The one the girls out of the swimming pool invited him to.

And then you see that one door students are not allowed in, but it's the wrong floor, yet you know that is the one door.

 

You learn why you shouldn't show what you create outside of class firsthand.

 

Saying that you know what happened is a stretch, like saying that you remember a dream completely, it's just not possible, it's just not true.  
What you remember are pieces and bits of distorted figures, feelings that linger and mix with ones they should never come close to.

You'd finished reading something to the crows, and they left, maybe flying away to get food from someone else.  
You stayed put a little longer, fixing up a few parts.  
Then they approached.

They stayed a little behind you, looking at your work, their presence not unwelcome, but kind of distracting.

You remember it was an invitation, you remember not the exact words.

You had nothing better to do, you remembered talking to this person, you accepted.

You remember a place perfectly still, where light cut through the fog, making some kind of glitter in it shine.  
It was weird, it was like dust in the air, but it sparkled and stayed put.

You remember not being cold, you remember the temperature being just right, but you remember a white cloud coming out of your mouth and nose with each breath.

You remeber seeing so many people, you saw so many people, you were in the middle of a crowd, you were surrounded.  
Everybody spoke and you heard only one voice and you spoke.

You think you were telling your stories.  
They asked you to make them cry, they asked you to make them laugh, they asked you to do so much, to do nothing. To stay.  
To stay.  
Stay.

 

Would you?  
You didn't feel shame in wanting to stay, you felt no need to leave, you felt nothing but willfulness to please until they averted their eyes.

Would you?  
Yes.

Would you?  
Yes

"He will come with me, in exchange I'll bring you someone else, someone better. That is the deal."

Would you?

"If your court is willing to make a deal, why would we accept? Certainly you can offer something more appealing."

 

Yes.

"There will not be an other offer."

Would you?  
You walked behind someone, the others letting you go through, you are okay.

Then something changes, you breathe in.  
The air fills your lungs almost violently, the trees are standing around you.

The next step is harder to take, who are you following?  
There's a hand wrapped around yours, you squeeze your fingers and find that someone else's are between them.

Two rhythms are scanned by your feet on the forest grounds, the wind blows softly, playing the tree branches like an instrument.  
You hear a few crows cry out.

You can't take an other step, but it's not The Next Step because if that were the case you would have fallen to the ground. You swing around, like a rock tied with a rope, you swing around with a new hand holding you.

You are helped to a bench but your head doesn't stop spinning. You feel your body, but aside from the outside walls it's empty.  
It's so strange to feel so full you are empty, you can separate your lungs filling from your heart beating to your muscles contracting.

A voice speaks directly in your ear.

It's soft and hoarse, it's sweet nothings that go directly to your skull.  
"You will be better, Knight. Open your eyes, come back to me."

When have your eyes fallen shut?  
You inhale deeply, the soft air against your ear is too much, you need to move away and in doing so, you bend your head to the side.  
You exhale.

Warm lips touch where your jaw meets your neck and gooseflesh takes over your body.

It's so warm, he's so warm.   
The world disappears, sucked in on the simple pressure of lips against skin and warmth and...  
and a voice, a scream, a name. Your name.

Is it your real name or is it your title? you can't hear a difference. Maybe you should change your Safe Name.

Firm hands are holding your face, you're being called again, she sounds so worried almost panicked.

You open your eyes to make sure that it's Seer and yes, it is your sister indeed, she is smiling at the lips as her eyes cry, before you can get a chance at smiling back at her she has pulled you in, hugging your head because you do not have the time for unnecessary actions such as standing up for a proper hug.

You think you doze off with your forehead pressed on her sternum and arms around your head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You had been Elsewhere for over a month, it takes a week to recover from it and the school is just giving you the time you need.

You spend most of your time sleeping, Seer pops in between moments of unconsciousness, telling you that nobody thought you'd be back, trying to see what has changed in you, when she'll really have you back.

You think she might have been about to make some pact to have you back.  
You're glad she didn't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you recover you do so all at once, feeling suddently energized, stepping right back into your old habits as if the previous month and a half had merely been a dream of a night.

The first time you get out of Seer's dorm you meet a crow, sitting close to the door, as if waiting.

It cries out as soon as you step out, not moving when you walk towards it, jumping on your hand when you offer it.  
You pull it closer, studying it carefully.  
"Thank you."

It flyes off, well, more precisely, it flyes behind you, his wings going quiet way too soon and you could see him in your mind before even turning.

"Hey, Cancer."  
"Knight. I hope you're alright."

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I haven't completed anything since Of Flowers And Prison Bars and really needed to complete and publish something to stop feeling like a useless piece of shit.
> 
> Therefore: yes, I am awere that this sucks. If I can revice my creativity anytime soon I'll fix this, but for now, if you have reached the end of it:
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and if you would be so kind as to leave a tiny little comment it would mean a LOT to me and hey
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks!


End file.
